This Geriatric Mental Health Academic Award will enable the Principal Investigator to undertake a series of investigations of suicide in the elderly. The proposed research is multidimensional, and includes epidemiological, clinical/descriptive, and neurobiological perspectives. Each dimension will be studied in samples of elderly suicide attempters, completed suicide victims, and control populations. The Principal Investigator will also take courses, study independently, and seek expert consultation in areas relevant to the investigation of suicide and late-life affective disorders. In addition to his own program of suicide research, he will lead a collaborative multidisciplinary effort to more fully understand suicidal behavior from social and environmental perspectives. The Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, through its NIMH Clinical Research Center for the Study of Psychopathology of the Elderly, is committed to developing a major multidisciplinary program studying affective disorders and suicide in the elderly. With the support of this Geriatric Mental Health Academic Award, the Principal Investigator will develop and direct these efforts.